


hazy night, changing sign

by markleegalaxies



Series: baby vamp mark & his human hyuck [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: 127 and wayv are one big coven, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Vampire, First Meetings, Human Lee Donghyuck | Haechan, Hurt No Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, M/M, Meet-Cute, Mentioned NCT Dream Ensemble, No Romance, Pet Sitting, Vampire Mark Lee (NCT), the coven might seem mean but they’re not and mark is just having a hard time, yet!!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-05
Updated: 2021-01-05
Packaged: 2021-03-15 19:08:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28568988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/markleegalaxies/pseuds/markleegalaxies
Summary: Mark Lee, 21 years old, technically 210 years old if we were using his vampire age, just started growing his real, adult fangs in.Who was going to tell him that a stupid amount of teenage vampire angst accompanied this? Because no one did, and now Mark has ‘run away’ from his coven.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee
Series: baby vamp mark & his human hyuck [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2093280
Comments: 25
Kudos: 246





	hazy night, changing sign

Mark means this with the most love he can muster, but honestly, fuck Johnny. 

Because this wasn’t a laughing matter, Mark’s teeth fucking _hurt_ , and if Johnny cared for him like the brother he always bragged to be, then he wouldn’t be laughing and filming the moment right now. 

But then again, he guesses that’s also what older brothers do. Y’know, embarrass you till the ends of the earth just for their own entertainment. 

“Dude,” Mark groans, swatting Johnny’s hands away again for the nth time. He doesn’t know how Johnny hasn’t just let up with how red the skin of his hands are getting, stung from every time Mark hits them. “I’m gonna tell on you!”

That’s clearly not the right thing to say, even Mark knows it as the words slip from his mouth, but he can’t take it back now. All he can do is watch how Johnny guffaws, because acting like a toddler was apparently that amusing to him, and shrink more into his hoodie to avoid Johnny’s camera. 

“What are you? A preschooler?” Johnny snickers, but much to Mark’s relief, he stops filming. “Grow up— You knew this was going to happen since you were ten years old!”

“It still hurts Johnny,” Mark spits, as aggressively as he can when his gums ache. He’s been cradling his mouth for the past twenty minutes, because Yuta had promised to go bring him ice, but has yet to return. “I bet you writhed like a worm when your teeth were growing in,” he accuses, and he thinks he’s right when Yuta finally walks back in, snickering with a pack of frozen peas in his hand. 

“He was a _baby_ ,” Yuta mocks, sitting down on the couch next to Mark, and holding the peas up to his jaw himself, because Yuta likes him way more than Johnny does. “Worse than you, trust me.” 

And the funny thing about Yuta is that even if Mark was wrong, he’d still go to the ends of the earth to defend him. Which, obviously, isn’t appreciated at times, but now Mark thinks it’s a blessing in disguise. Teaming up against Johnny was always fun, and it was even more fun when all Mark had to do was watch from the sidelines, as Yuta tears Johnny to shreds. 

“Fuck off,” Johnny grumbles, and that alone lets Mark know that Yuta was probably right. It makes him smile, but then he abruptly closes his mouth because it still _hurts_ , damnit. 

“How long does this last?” Mark asks, slumping back into the cushions of the couch. Mark has no idea how long this couch has been here, but every time someone sits on it, Mark thinks the fabric is one use away from tearing itself apart. “I have to go to school tomorrow.”

“You can still go,” Johnny says, and he rolls his eyes a sif the answer was obvious. “Kun went to find you painkillers.”

“What, like Tylenol 3?” Mark scoffs, and he thinks the finger flick he gets on his temple from Yuta is undeserved. But then again, Mark thinks he’s on the receiving side of a lot of undeserved things, but that was too much to unpack now. 

“Kun doesn’t deal with _Tylenol 3_ ,” Yuta snickers, and he scrunches his nose at the mere mention, as if he hasn’t taken it before. Yuta was so _weird_ when it came to stuff like this, but Mark had long ago passed being intrigued by it. By now, he just knows that’s how Yuta is. “He’s brewing something with Taeyong.” 

Mark winces at that, already dreading whatever Kun and Taeyong are making. They’re both experimental, and everyone in their coven eventually falls victim of their trials and tribulations, and it seems like it’s Mark’s turn now. 

“I don’t want it,” he says putently, but of course, it’s not that simple. It never is around here. 

“It’s not a choice buddy,” Johnny shrugs, in the way he does when he couldn’t care less about what’s going on right now. Mark doesn’t know how to tell when Johnny is or isn’t genuine anymore. He also doesn’t like when Johnny calls him buddy, as if he was still ten. He’s like, twenty one right now. “Everyone’s gotta do it.”

Mark doesn’t think that’s reason enough, but he also knows that arguing against this would be futile. It is _inevitable,_ and he’s pretty sure that everyone in this coven has had to go through with it. 

“You better suck it up before the others come home,” Johnny tacks on, as if he couldn’t get enough of tormenting Mark. And if he didn’t know any better, he’d think that’s true. “You want the youngins to see you like this?”

Mark doesn’t know why Johnny refers to them as _youngins_ when there’s only one coven member who’s younger than Mark, but he doesn’t have the time to argue with Johnny about that. 

“I don’t care,” Mark huffs. He’s already lost too much respect in this coven by just _breathing_ (and maybe because he doesn’t live up the vampire expectations Taeyong has of him—but that was something else entirely), so he doesn’t think wasting his energy on trying to appease to the other members will do much for what they think of him.

Mark thinks it’s weird how Johnny even cares this much about any of that, since they’ve all been together since they turned. And for many people, that was a very young age, just like Mark, just like Yuta, and just like Doyoung. And maybe just like some other people, but as much as Mark wants to think otherwise, he’s not really close with many people in this coven.

Maybe Johnny has a reason to be this stingy when it comes to what other people think of Mark, since he’s done his part in maintaining a stoic image ever since he joined. Mark doesn’t know exactly when that was, but he does know it was well before him. He thinks he remembers Johnny saying that when this all started, it was just him, Ten, Taeyong, and Kun. Maybe that explained why Johnny was extremely close with those three. 

Not to say that he isn’t friendly or amicable to anyone else, because it’s Johnny they’re talking about, and as much as he is a jerk to Mark, and as of late, Yuta, when he’s comfortable enough to put his guard down, he doesn’t have a single bad bone in his body. It’s one of the few things he lets himself admire about Johnny, but he’d never tell him that. 

“Well start caring,” Johnny says, like he always does, and Mark should’ve expected it, honestly. “You’re not a kid anymore Mark, you can’t get away with half the shit you do anymore.”

Mark has half the mind to glare at Johnny, because now this is entering unprovoked territory. Yes, Mark and Johnny get along well, Mark gets along decently well with everyone in the coven, but that doesn’t mean that Johnny doesn’t push it or _not_ get on his nerves all the time. 

He doesn’t really understand what the semblance of this coven is, because he’s heard, and read, before that covens are supposed to be your family. And while he does consider everyone here his brother, he doesn’t understand why they’re not a _family._ Because half of the time staying in this house feels more like a prolonged vacation with friends than it does feel like being surrounded by family everyday. He’s never voiced this before, because he doesn’t want to hurt anybody. 

He’d never want Kun and Taeyong to think that they’re doing something wrong, not when they’re the ones who started this whole thing from the bottom up. They’re the ones who had taken in Johnny and Ten, they’re the ones who continuously take in newly turned vampires who are desperate and lost. 

A lot of covens expand off of bloodlines and ties by marriage, which is what makes their coven so different. And despite all of that, Mark feels like he truly only has two people who he’d get bitten for again. 

Yuta and Yukhei, and on the occasional off day, Johnny. 

“I don’t think it matters,” Mark says again, this time fully glaring at Johnny. “Just because I can’t be the vampire everyone wants me to be—”

“Obviously!” Johnny interrupts, like he always does. It drives Mark crazy every single time, but that’s never reason enough for Johnny to stop. “You’re twenty-one and you just started teething Mark, did you think anyone would want to say they’re in a coven with you?”

Mark doesn’t even hear the way Yuta tells Johnny to cut it out, that _that’s_ _enough_ , over the way he scoffs, and the way the couch creaks under him as he gets up. 

“You know, fuck you Johnny,” Mark spits, pushing Yuta’s hand away when he tries to put the peas back on his face. “I bet you’d like it if I wasn’t burdening you.”

Mark doesn’t hear what Johnny says to that, his ears stuffed with cotton as he walks away from them, and to the bedroom he shares with Yukhei. Yukhei isn’t home yet, so he’s alone for now, and he’s grateful. He doesn’t want to hear what Johnny says anyways, he’s sure it’s something along the lines of _Yeah, I would_. 

Mark only briefly hears Yuta and Johnny arguing in hushed tones before he closes the door, and he doesn't care about what they’re saying at all.

He throws himself onto his bed, which is unmade from the previous morning, and forces himself into a dreamless sleep. 

Mark feels like death when he wakes up, which really isn’t the best comparison, but he doesn’t really care. The sky is now dark when he looks outside the window, a contrast to the sun which was shining in the high afternoon. 

Also, Yukhei is in his bed.

“What are you doing?” Mark groans, and it’s only when he speaks that he feels that damned peas against his mouth again. Yukhei must’ve been icing him while he was asleep, which makes sense because his mouth does feel a little numb. 

“Making sure you don’t whine when you wake up,” Yukhei’s simply answers, and Mark can feel the rumble of his voice from where his shoulder is pressed against the other’s chest. “But you did anyways, you big baby.”

Mark grunts at that, dismissing Yukhei’s hand away and putting the peas onto the table. They’re all thawed soft by now anyways. 

He gets up and sits up, trying to adjust his eyes to the lack of light. 

Their shoulders are touching as they sit against the headboard, and Mark vaguely entertains the idea of waking up somewhere else.

“What time is it?”

“Almost 10:00 pm,” Yukhei hums, knocking the tops of his feet together where they lay near the end of the bed. “You knocked out. Rough day with your teething?” 

He doesn’t really know why he knocked out, but he doesn’t know how to tell Yukhei that it was mostly because of Johnny, more than anything else. Yukhei was just a little bit like Johnny in that sense, with how he can’t see the bad in anyone. One day, Mark thinks it’ll bite Yukhei in the ass, but he’s been lucky so far.

“Is it always this bad?” Mark asks, sighing as he leans his head onto Yukhei’s shoulder. He likes how Yukhei doesn’t mind being affectionate, because after all these years, Mark still doesn’t like being cold all the time. 

Not that Yukhei’s own icy frame provides much… But it’s enough. 

“Honestly… It’s not that bad if you start when you’re a teenager,” Yukhei says carefully, the unspoken; _when you’re supposed to_ , going by unneeded. Mark knows that’s what he means anyways. “But it’ll pass, it’s not supposed to last longer than like, three months—”

“Months?” Mark groans, running a hand down his face in frustration and them immediately regretting it when his mouth starts to ache again. So much for ice, he might really need to use whatever Taeyong and Kun are working on. He wonders if it’s already finished. 

“Yeah dude… It doesn’t just _finish_ , y’know? You’re lucky it’s not like puberty for humans— that shit takes years.”

Mark wouldn’t know how long puberty lasts for humans, because he’s never experienced it before. He doesn’t think Yukhei has either, but he takes his word for it nonetheless. Yukhei doesn’t lie anyways, so what he’s saying must be true. 

But he doesn’t say anything, and just sighs as he throws his head back and closes his eyes. 

Why was this so… Difficult?

So what if he wasn’t the vampire Taeyong thought he’d be when he had been taken in? People start developing into their distinctive vampire features at different ages—why was it such a big issue? Even Kun himself hadn’t presented until he was eighteen, which was _late_ considering he’d been turned as a child. 

What was Mark doing so wrong that everyone else was doing right? 

“I can hear you thinking,” Yukhei mutters after some moments go by in silence. “And whenever you think, you hurt. So stop.” 

“That’s not true,” Mark scoffs, but it doesn’t even sound believable to his own ears. Why does Yukhei know him so well? “It’s not like they’re wrong anyways. Maybe I am just a disappointment to the coven.”

“Mark,” Yukhei sighs disapprovingly. “You know no one thinks that. You’re just different, and there’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Well there clearly is!” Mark argues, a bit louder and a bit more aggressive than he intended to be. “I’m tired of Taeyong looking at me like I’m doing something wrong, I’m tired of Johnny wishing I was someone else, and I’m tired of everyone looking at me like I’m different! I died too, you know? I had to get bitten, I had to die, and I had to go through everything that you’re all going through, so what’s the problem?”

Mark doesn’t realize he’s ranting until he’s done, and his chest is heaving a little while he’s a bit out of breath. He’s looking at Yukhei’s unreadable face, and he wonders what he’s thinking. Maybe Yukhei has been silently agreeing to everything all this time, but Mark doesn’t want to think of him like that. Yukhei doesn’t have a single bad bone in his body, and it’s extremely infuriating. 

“I know you did,” he ends up agreeing, one of his large hands coming to his shoulders for comfort. For a vampire, Yukhei is warmer than the rest of them. But Mark also recognizes his conscious choice to not use the word _we_. “And that doesn’t take anything away from who you are.”

“Then tell them that,” Mark grumbles, ready to let the topic go as he cocks his head towards their closed bedroom door, where he can hear faint voices of the rest of their members. “They’ll probably listen to you over me.”

“Mark—”

“Can we not talk about it anymore? I just want to go back to sleep,” he sighs, and thankfully, and just because it’s Yukhei, he doesn’t question it, doesn’t do much than sign, and lets it go. 

“Yeah, but you need to take the elixir Kun and Taeyong made,” he says gently, making slow moves to get off of the bed so as to not disturb Mark, who’s already laying back down and burrowing into the blankets. “I’ll get it for you.”

Mark says something about making sure it isn’t laced with poison as Yukhei walks away, but he doesn’t think Yukhei hears him, despite vampires having better than average hearing. 

Mark wonders what Hendery, Dejun, and Yangyang are up to, the ones who weren’t back last time Mark checked. Then his thoughts drift to briefly wondering what Johnny is doing, but he pushes those thoughts away before he can even begin to entertain them. He’s pretty sure Johnny doesn’t care anyways.

Yukhei comes back before Mark can throw himself down his own spiral of thoughts, and makes him drink that wretched elixir. The effect isn’t immediate, but Yukhei promises him he won’t be in any pain when he wakes up in the morning, and Mark believes him.

He leaves Mark alone to sleep after that, but Mark’s mind doesn’t give him a break. His body may be lethargic and physically tired, but his brain doesn’t seem like it wants to cooperate. 

He flops onto his back after thirty minutes of restlessness, where the moon casts smooth shadows on the ceiling and walls of the room. Mark knows Sicheng and Kun’s favourite thing to do is fool around and dance under the moonlight, and he wonders if that’s what they’re doing right now. 

He also wonders what sleeping under the moonlight would be like. Because technically, they do that everyday, but not in the sense that he’s thinking about. 

He wonders what it’d be like to just lay on the grass, with the wind blowing around you and the moonlight shining down on you. Maybe it’d be comforting, but a bit cold. 

But he doesn’t have to worry about the cold anymore anyway. His skin was almost chilly, but inside he was never too cold. It’s just very… Average. 

Mark shuffles around once more, trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in for the night, only to end up unsuccessful, for the nth time. Mark gives up, and flops onto his stomach defeatedly. He sighs, and his breath flicks the tips of his bangs up, and he’d do it again if he had the energy. 

But he doesn’t, so he just closes his eyes, and tries to think of something which _isn’t_ how much his gums still hurt. 

  
  
  


______

  
  
  


This time, Mark wakes up earlier than anyone else, but that might have to do with how he fell asleep before everyone else. Nonetheless, he tries to not make any sound as he gets out of bed, not wanting to wake Yukhei, who looks sound and snug in his blankets. They don’t really provide too much warmth, so Mark doesn’t really know what the appeal is. 

He’s quiet with his footsteps outside of the bedroom too, almost tiptoeing as he walks to the bathroom. The mirrors aren’t fogged, and there’s no condensation, further proving that he was the first one to get ready. 

Mark takes a quick shower and brushes his teeth, half-assedly brushing his hair back before going back to his room to change, where he finds that Yulhei is still sleeping. 

Jungwoo, Yukhei, Hendery, and Dejun are the only ones who are still in school, and while Mark would usually wake Yukhei up so that they could leave together, Mark doesn’t bother today. He figures Yukhei can go with Jungwoo today, and he kind of wants to be alone. 

Once he’s changed into clothes appropriate for the September weather, Mark grabs his backpack, phone, and keys before tying his shoes. 

He thinks he’ll be able to make it out without having to see anyone, but it’s just his luck that he hears a bedroom door creak open behind him, as well as someone’s footsteps padding towards his direction.

“Mark?” Yuta’s voice calls, a bit thick and groggy with sleep. 

Mark doesn’t realize it until his shoulders drop, but he’d been tense about who was going to greet him. It makes him sigh, because he shouldn’t be worrying about things like that when he’s somewhere he lives, but he forgets it soon enough. 

“‘Morning,” Mark greets gruffly, standing up from typing his laces and wearing how his knees crack a little. He blames it on his poor posture, but then he doesn’t even know if posture has anything to do with it. 

“School? You don’t want to go with Yukhei?” Yuta questions. Mark can tell he’s trying to be nonchalant, but it’s not working, and it just makes Mark feel tired despite having just woken up. Contrary to popular belief, vampires _do_ sleep, just not frequently. Mark can go almost four days without sleeping, but older vampires, like Ten and Kun, can go up to two weeks. 

But once again, he wasn’t like most vampires, right? Even if he’s been one for more than half his life by now. 

“I like walking alone,” Mark shrugs, shuffling awkwardly on his feet as he tries to think of a way to tell Yuta that he should get going. It’s never been this awkward around Yuta before, and he briefly blames it on Johnny and last night’s events before he relents and realizes that it wasn’t just Johnny’s fault.

“How are your gums?” Yuta asks instead, and Mark shrugs. 

“They’re alright.”

“You should take another vial of elixir,” Yuta suggests, and he doesn’t even give Mark a chance to think about it before he’s walking towards the room where they brew many different… _Things_. “Take it as soon as your gums hurt. It should last until tomorrow morning, but if they start hurting again, you can take more tonight,” he explains as he walks back, screwing the cap onto the vial and then handing it to Mark. 

Mark takes it, but it’s with a bit of apprehension. He really hates the way this tastes.

“Have a good day Mark. I’ll see you tonight, right?”

Yuta might be the only thing he even wants to see tonight. 

“Yeah… I’ll see you tonight.” 

Yuta lets him go without much after that, and Mark is grateful as he begins to walk to school in the dark light of the early morning. The sun has yet to rise, and it’s still a bit chilly outside as he looks around, the streetlights still on. 

Mark sighs, but it’s just so that he can take in a lungful of fresh air. Fresh air isn’t really supposed to do much for vampires, but he still appreciates the crisp coolness which enters his body, almost cool enough to match how frigid his skin is.

Their coven resides near the outskirts of town, and university is right in the middle. It’s quite a long walk, and normally Mark doesn’t mind it when he has company. But he had asked to be alone today, or just made it happen, so he doesn’t really find it in himself to complain. 

Instead, he appreciates the beauty of the things he normally doesn’t pay attention to when his attention is usually absorbed in a conversation. 

Before he knows it, he’s in front of his university, and his legs ache only a little. But the steps are welcome, and he wonders how many he’ll have tracked by the end of the day. 

Mark’s day goes by too slowly for his liking, and he’s too bored in his last class to actually pay attention. Instead, he finds himself scrolling through his phone, somehow keeping himself entertained. 

And it’s fine, but only for all of fifteen minutes. Because then, as he’s trying to solve this really hard word puzzle, his eyes shift to a banner notification at the top of his screen. 

When he reads the message though, he wishes he hadn’t. 

**_j suh hyung_ ** _[3:46 PM]_

_mark i don’t care if you have a problem with me but why did you leave w/o telling anyone?_

_yuta left soon after you and no one knew where you were_

_grow up mark, and take responsibility for once_

Mark scoffs under his breath, unable to keep it to himself. Perhaps he had really turned Johnny unhinged last night, and now he was able to voice all of his real thoughts and opinions. Maybe that’s for the best though, since Mark knows what Johnny really thinks.

He doesn’t bother replying to the messages, going back to his word puzzles and waiting for his class to finish. He doesn’t feel like going back home now, and he takes a few minutes to think about what he could do to kill time instead. 

He almost doesn’t realize when their professor had dismissed them, but before he could be the last one left in the room, someone comes up to him and taps three fingers onto his desk. 

“Hey. Class is done,” 

Mark’s eyes tilt up to see Jung Sungchan, acquaintance and someone he met through this class. Sungchan isn’t supposed to be in this class, but he’s super smart, or something, which is why he’s enrolled. Mark doesn’t really know how it works, and he doesn’t question it either. 

“Thanks,” Mark hums, trying his best to sound as normal as he can. This is Sungchan, and Sungchan doesn’t know about all his turmoil, nor does he care, so he doesn’t need to be snippy for no reason. “Sorry, it was just _so_ boring today,” he adds on lightly, hoping Sungchan laughs a bit. And when he does, Mark smiles a little too. 

“Yeah, it was a drag,” he agrees, and he starts walking next to Mark as they exit the lecture room. Mark briefly contemplated if he can somehow worm Sungchan into hanging out with him so that he doesn’t have to go back to the coven, but Sungchan speaks before he can even entertain the idea. 

“Hey, this is kind of a weird question…” he starts, and Mark almost snorts out loud. He was a _vampire_ for God’s sake, and he lives with fifteen others. He’s sure he’s heard weirder questions than whatever Sungchan is about to ask him. 

“Go for it,” Mark encourages, and out of his peripheral vision, he sees Sungchan bring a hand up to scratch his neck nervously. 

“You wouldn’t happen to know someone who can pet sit starting tonight, right?” he asks in one breath, and when Mark looks over at him with an eyebrow raised, Sungchan continues. “I know it’s like, super last minute, but my roommate just let me know that he’s gonna be out of town with his friends for a few days. I need to get home tonight for my family.”

“How long?” Mark asks curiously, his mind already conjuring thoughts that he most definitely should not be thinking about. But he just can’t help himself… 

“Just for a few days! And then my roommate will be back to take care of Haru.”

“Haru?” Mark repeats, and Sungchan nods.

“She’s my cat.”

Mark pretends to think about it, but he doesn’t really need to.

It’s not everyday the world smacks you right in the face with a golden opportunity.

“I can do it,” he tells Sungchan, who looks at him with wide eyes, almost as if he couldn’t believe him. That, or like Mark was some ethereal being, so it must be the former.

“Really?”

“Yeah.”

 _Sorry, Yuta hyung_. 

  
  
  


Maybe Sungchan wasn’t the smartest person for letting a mere acquaintance into his shared apartment, or for leaving his spare key with him. 

But there’s a nice guest room, and Sungchan said he had free reign of snacks, so Mark really doesn’t care about how dull Sungchan was currently. They all have their moments, right? 

And anyways, Mark is relishing in this twist of fate, finally at peace knowing that he’ll be alone for the next few days. As much as he loves Yukhei and Yuta, he doesn’t want to face Johnny, or anyone else right now. Who knows what kind of nonsense Johnny is spewing to them now anyways. 

Just thinking about it makes Mark upset and mad, so he shakes his head and tries to push the thoughts away as Sungchan explains Haru’s eating schedule. 

“—and when you go to sleep, make sure there’s nothing that can break easily within reach. I also never sleep with my door closed so that she can sleep with me if she wants. You don’t mind that, do you?” 

Sungchan is explaining all these things while hastily packing a last minute bag with his essentials, and Mark thinks he looks funny running around like a madman with his long legs. He doesn’t voice this though, and just nods his head.

“Anything else I need to know?” Mark asks, eyes drifting down to the snowy white kitten curled around Sungchan’s ankle. Honestly, Haru isn’t as big as he thought, she could probably fit in his hoodie pocket. 

“I think that’s all. You have my number if anything happens, and my roommate should be back before you know it,” he tells Mark, who nods and watches as Sungchan picks up Haru with one hand, and places her in a barstool. “Okay. I have to go now, please behave, he’s a friend,” he tells the kitten, and Mark wants to know if she can actually understand what he’s saying. 

“Don’t worry man,” Mark assures, patting his shoulder when he stands back up from crouching to pat Haru’s head once more. “I’ll take good care of her.”

“Don’t doubt it,” Sungchan sighs, adjusting his bag on his shoulder. “Thanks Mark, I owe you.”

Mark waves it off dismissively for now, but doesn’t doubt that he will be taking Sungchan up on his offer later on. Maybe, if it was necessary or convenient. 

For now though, he watches as Sungchan leaves the apartment, his full faith in Mark to not like… Rob the place, or something. Which is pretty adventurous and daring for Sungchan, but he doesn’t really expect anything less from him. 

“I guess it’s just you and me,” Mark sighs, looking at Haru as she stares back at him with those big blue eyes, her little head tilted to one side adorably. Mark has never had a cat, or a pet for that matter, but he’s terribly endeared and fond of her already. “You’ll make good company.” 

Haru does make for good enough company though, because she’s really plaint, and surprisingly, really clingy. She also takes a liking to Mark, which is nice. 

Mark didn’t bring any clothes with him, but he doesn’t think it really matters since vampires never really… Smell of anything. He doesn’t get sweaty, or have a body odour either, so he guesses he’ll be fine. Sungchan said he could use a spare toothbrush anyways, and had even asked what colour Mark wanted. He said red. 

At the end of the day, after Mark had fed Haru and watched her eat contentedly, he resides in the guest room. Mark is surprised that there even is a guest room, but he isn’t complaining at all. 

The mattress is soft, and the pillows are even softer. But that doesn’t really matter, because Mark doesn’t even use pillows when he sleeps. Instead, he just pulls the pillows to his chest, and relishes into the warmth of the blanket. 

Mark’s always been cold, but this blanket seems to feel warmer than anything else he’s ever used. 

Some time after the sun has gone down, Haru jumps onto the bed with him, and curls up on the pillow next to his head. Her tail tickles his nose, and he wakes up with bleary eyes for a few seconds just to see her get settled. 

In the time that his eyes are open, Mark sees that his phone is lighting up with an incoming call. He ignores it, and when the call goes away, his lockscreen is flooded with notifications and messages. 

Mark just flips his phone screen down, and goes back to sleep. 

  
  
  


______

  
  
  


Two days go by like this, and Mark is glad that it’s the weekend. He doesn’t know how he had managed to avoid Yukhei, Hendery, Dejun, and Jungwoo when he had to go to school, but he isn’t complaining in the slightest bit. He knows for a fact that if any of them had seen him walking around like nothing was wrong, he’d get an earful, maybe a scolding, and would be dragged back to the coven. 

Which really wasn’t what he wanted right now.

The only thing that makes him feel a bit guilty about this is the worry he’s causing Yukhei and Yuta, and he’s always a second away from just going back to the coven when he thinks about this. 

He doesn’t want to trouble them like he troubles everyone else, but a breather is all he needs. Maybe just a few more days, at _least_ , but it’s nice. It’s nice when he doesn’t feel like he needs to hide in his own home, or when he doesn’t have to try hard and exhaust himself to be someone he isn’t. Someone he isn’t capable of being, and someone all of the coven wants him to be. 

“Haru, don’t you ever want to have burgers?” Mark asks, watching as she eats the canned tuna he had put into her bowl ten minutes ago. She’s still nibbling away at it; Haru eats slowly, he’s noticed. “Do you even eat meat?” he asks again, furrowing his eyebrows. 

He’s actually not too sure if cats are allowed to eat meat, and his phone had died his first morning here, so it’s not like he could find out either. He didn’t bother charging it, even if he and Sungchan have the same phone. The constant messages would’ve been annoying, or maybe they wouldn’t even be there. Maybe they’re all already tired of him and don’t even bother with keeping a record of him anymore. 

Maybe Johnny was right when he said no one wanted to be in a coven with him… 

Mark sighs, it’s Sunday afternoon, and he looks at the ceiling while laying on the couch which isn’t nearly as withered as the one back at the coven. Granted, that one has been around for probably _centuries_ , given that vampires age differently, and Taeyong and Kun are older than him. 

For every fifteen years which pass, vampires age one. In other words, Mark has been with his coven for a really, _really_ long time. He was seven when he had turned, and now he’s twenty-one. Mak can’t do mental math that well, but he’s pretty sure that’s over two hundred years. 

Two hundred years of not living up to their expectations… That’s a really long time… 

Anyways, Mark doesn’t think about it, and forces himself to pat Haru and pay attention to her instead. It seems like cats were good at distracting him, and he shortly considers if he should get his own. 

He doesn’t get to entertain that idea for long though, because a sharp and throbbing pain starts pulsating in his mouth. 

Mark shoots up immediately in pain, his hands coming up to cup his ja, as if it’ll do something. He almost forgot he was teething, since he’d been using the elixir Yuta had given a few mornings ago. 

Now though, horrifyingly, Mark realizes that he doesn’t have any more elixir, having used up the last of it yesterday morning. 

Mark has a sinking feeling in his chest, and gets up from the couch in hopes that Sungchan and his roommate have frozen peas. They don’t help _at all_ , it’s nothing compared to the elixir, but it’s good enough. It dulls the pain slightly, and Mark will honestly take whatever he can get. 

He’s rummaging through the freezer when he hears the sound of keys jingling, and the first though that came to mind was that it was Haru playing with something. He doesn’t pay it any mind, he knows he left safe toys in her reach, but then he thinks he hears footsteps which are way, _way_ heavier than Haru’s, and his friend short circuits for a moment.

Was Sungchan supposed to be home so soon? It’s only been three days, and he doesn’t think he was supposed to be back soon… Sungchan’s roommate was also not supposed to be home for another two to three days, and Mark is suddenly scared about who has entered. 

He knows that realistically, he could take anyone on, he’s a _vampire_ , but he’s also a vampire who just started teething, one which hasn’t developed all of his supposed vampire strength, immunity, or anything else he doesn’t know he’s supposed to have, because he’s not going this whole vampire thing right. 

“Uh…” a voice suddenly calls, effectively ripping Mark out of his self-pitying thoughts, and he realizes only now that his head is still in the freezer searching. “Who the hell are you?” 

That voice definitely _doesn’t_ belong to Sungchan though, and Mark hates how he’s never heard it before. He hates confrontation, but now he’s stuck in his situation, and he doesn’t have a choice but to acknowledge the stranger in front of him, with tan skin, kinda long blond hair, and a duffel bag slung over one shoulder. 

“Mark,” he blurts out lamely, and he almost whines out loud when his gums ache with just merely speaking. Instead, he holds his jaw tenderly once more, as if it would do anything. He can’t just admit why his gums are aching to this stranger though. “Mark Lee,” he grits out, trying no to open his mouth much. 

“Okay, cool Mark Lee. Why are you in my apartment?” the boy asks, and he’s so impassive to the way Mark is wincing continuously, and how weird he probably looks with his hand covering the bottom half of his face. 

“Haru,” Mark says first, thinking about how he can explain things to him, which Mark has pieced together is Sungchan's roommate, in the least amount of words possible. “Pet sitting.”

“Oh,” he says, and the realization seems to fall onto his face. “I thought he would’ve asked Shotaro or something… Anyways, I’m Donghyuck,” he introduces, and honestly, Mark isn’t trying to be mean or anything, but he really couldn’t care about his name when his mouth is killing him. 

“Nice,” he ends up blurting lamely, in a haze of what could be irritation, but Mark knows it isn’t even directed towards Donghyuck. He’s just getting frustrated over how he didn’t take his teething into consideration when he agreed to pet sit. 

“Dude, are you alright?” Donghyuck finally asks after a few awkward moments of silence go by. He doesn’t really know how to answer Donghyuck, but he knows he also can’t just ignore him. That’d be rude, not to mention he’s standing in the kitchen which _he_ pays rent for.

“Yeah, just mouth shit,” Mark mumbles vaguely, and he knows it wasn’t the right thing to say when Donghyuck’s eyebrows furrow. 

Mark only vaguely hears what he assumes in Donghyuck’s duffel bag hit the ground, before he’s joining Mark right next to the freezer and searching through some things before he pulls out a bag of frozen peas. 

Mark is starting to wonder if everyone just had a bag of frozen peas in their freezers for these scenarios, and if anyone even ate peas. 

“Would these help?” Donghyuck asks, handing the bag over to Mark, and finally looking like he cared at least a bit. Mark thinks it has something to do with the fact that now that they’re acquainted, Donghyuck doesn’t want to get started on the wrong foot. Even if Mark might’ve already done that for them. 

“They should,” Mark nods, and he takes them from Donghyuck and presses them to the same place Yuta and Yukhei had pressed them a few days ago. 

Instantly, the ice cold makes him shiver only just a bit, but it is welcome. He knows he’ll have to give it a while until the coldness starts to numb his mouth, and only then will the pain be reduced to a dull ache. Nothing like what the elixir can do for him, but honestly, the next best option. 

“So uh… Haru been causing you any trouble?” Donghyuck asks, and while Mark knows he’s clearly just trying to be nice and distract Mark from the pain he’s feeling, he couldn’t stop thinking about how now that Donghyuck was back, he’d have to leave too. And he didn’t _want_ to, not yet, and Donghyuck wasn’t even supposed to be home for a few more days!

“You’re not supposed to be back so soon,” Mark voices, and it may come off as rude, but he’s more worried about going back to the coven and facing the wrath of his members. He’d rather not, if he was being honest… At least definitely not now. 

“Came back a bit earlier,” Donghyuck shrugs. “Why? Is our guest bed that comfortable?”

“Honestly? Yeah,” Mark answers, reminiscing how he had fallen asleep every night just so that he could feel like he was floating on a cloud. “It’s great.”

“Flattering,” Donghyuck hums dryly, and Mark would laugh if he didn’t feel like his jaw was about to fall off of his face. “Don’t you have rent to pay though? Or roommates who are gonna kill you for not doing the dishes?” 

Mark doesn’t know how to tell Donghyuck that they don’t really eat in the first place, so he isn’t really missing out on any dish washing. 

“I don’t do the dishes,” Mark shrugs, leaning on the counter behind him, and watches as Donghyuck does the same on the opposite counter. 

He fixes Mark with a raised eyebrow, and Mark thinks it looks more intimidating than it should. 

“Laundry?” he tries, and Mark’s lips quirk into a small smile behind the peas. 

“Not my responsibility,” he answers, and this time, Donghyuck scoffs, like he can’t believe what he said. 

“Groceries?”

“Someone else takes care of it.” _We don’t really eat._

“Cleaning?”

“Nope.” _Taeyong takes it upon himself willingly._

“Rent?”

“We own the house.” _It’s been built from the bottom up._

“What? Are you even a student?” Donghyuck asks, crossing his arms over his chest. “How did you get so lucky?”

Sometimes, Mark thinks lucky doesn’t even begin to cover half of it. He knows that he’s lucky to have been taken in by a coven which isn’t traditional like others, and that his coven is so big. The stereotype behind big covens is having a big family, but Mark doesn’t feel like he’s too close to many of them. That’s the whole reason he’s here, right? 

“Dunno,” Mark mumbles, and suddenly, he’s looking down at the floor, because he can’t look at Donghyuck. 

If he was looking at this from Donghyuck’s perspective, then he’d think he was really privileged too. Was he just being dramatic about this? He had it all, and he didn’t even need much. Mark has always been grateful to be a part of such a great coven, but it seems like the coven doesn’t think the same for him. 

Donghyuck might’ve caught onto his tone, because he can feel the atmosphere drop around them. He wants to apologize, but he doesn’t even know what he’d be apologizing for. _Sorry, just going through vampire puberty, haha._

“I’m gonna go wash up,” Donghyuck announces, pushing himself off of the counter. “You’re welcome to stay for dinner.”

Mark hasn’t been eating anything for the past days he’s been here, because he just _doesn’t_ need to, but he doesn’t think that’s the right response to give Donghyuck.

“Thanks,” he ends up saying instead. 

As Donghyuck leaves the kitchen and heads down the hall to the bathroom, Mark realizes he’s going to have to leave tonight. 

  
  
  


Or maybe he doesn’t have to leave tonight. 

Because Donghyuck orders chicken and beer, and he’s really, really drunk right now. 

Mark thinks it’s just because Donghyuck is terribly unhinged, because Mark wouldn’t really ever get drunk the first night he meets someone. But then again, Mark can’t even get drunk, alcohol having no effect on him. 

That doesn’t mean it doesn’t on Donghyuck though, whose cheeks are flushed red and his eyes hazy. Mark thinks he looks really debauched, and he doesn’t know how to deal with him. He has very few… Acquaintances who are human, and he’s only been with them when they were drinking a handful of times. He’s not too knowledgeable on how to deal with it, but he’s glad they’re already in Donghyuck’s home. Nothing bad could happen here, he supposed. 

Donghyuck had even offered to blend up Mark’s chicken when he noticed that his mouth was still hurting, but that was terribly embarrassing, so Mark didn’t take him up on that offer. He struggled through the pain, but he persevered, so he guesses it’s okay at the end of the day. 

Anyways, Donghyuck was slurring his words, because Mark said he could also have his beer, and he guesses now he shouldn’t have done that. 

“Dude, you’re like so… Cold,” Donghyuck points out, repeatedly poking at a patch of skin on his forearm, which would bruise by now if Mark wasn’t a fucking vampire of all things. 

He wonders if Donghyuck gives bruises to anyone else he knows, if he’s always this touchy whenever he’s fascinated. Mark remembers reading something about how people like that are usually kinetic learners, and he thinks Donghyuck is one too. 

“Yeah,” Mark agrees lamely, nodding his head and watching as Donghyuck’s finger finally leaves his skin. “I’m always… Cold,” he shrugs, and Donghyuck hums too before he leans back against the couch. 

“Does your mouth still hurt?” Donghyuck mutters, and Mark briefly considers lying. But he doesn’t actually see the point, because one; why would he? And two; he’s pretty sure Donghyuck won’t remember any of this the next morning. 

“Yeah.”

“Why? Did you go to the dentist? Do you not have Tylenol 3?” 

Mark hasn’t been to the dentist in centuries, because he doesn’t need to go. One of vampires’ prized features are their teeth, so they don’t really… Get any damage done to them. Maybe if someone knocked his teeth out he’d have to go, but since that hasn’t happened yet (though he has been close), Mark doesn’t have any reason to go to the dentist. 

Thus, he doesn’t have Tylenol 3. 

“Nope,” he answers, popping the _p_ just because he can. 

“You’re so weird,” Donghyuck groans, and Mark is a bit surprised, but not terribly. He’s heard this before, but it was always from people in passing. But maybe Donghyuck is also just someone in passing; who says he’ll ever become more than Sungchan’s roommate to him? They haven’t even known each for a proper full day yet, but Mark already thinks Donghyuck is weird, for pointing out that _he’s_ weird. 

“How so?” Mark asks back, if only to entertain Donghyuck. And maybe because if he’s here late enough, Donghyuck will offer for him to stay, and Mark will say yes in a heartbeat. 

“You and your roommates own the house you live in,” he starts, and he sounds almost like he’s being sarcastic. But Mark doesn’t comment on it, and just waits for him to continue. “You’re so damn _cold—_ ” if Donghyuck thinks this is cold, his fingers might fall off if he touches Yuta, “—and you’re mouth hurts for no goddamn reason. What are you, teething?”

Mark snorts, because Donghyuck hit the nail right on the head. 

“Yeah, I am,” Mark says, because he _is_ , and he doubts Donghyuck is going to believe him. And if he does, he’ll forget about it when the morning sun shines. 

Donghyuck scoffs at Mark’s revelation, and the latter knows he doesn’t believe him. But his disbelief doesn’t stop him from getting up from the couch, grumbling at Mark to stay put as he goes to get something. Mark isn’t sure what to expect, but he stays sitting and waiting. 

When Donghyuck comes back, he’s holding something in his hand. Mark doesn’t see what it is since he’s hiding it behind his back, but as he bounces back next to him on the couch, he presents what he had gotten. 

Mark recognizes it as one of Haru’s chew toys. 

And Donghyuck looks way too serious for Mark to think that he’s joking and pulling at his leg. 

Even more so when he throws the chew toy at Mark, and reflexively, Mark catches it between his fingers. 

Donghyuck is looking at him expectantly, and he doesn’t know if he really expects him to use the chew toy to relieve his ache.

“This is for Haru,” he says blankly, stating the obvious as he waits for it to register in Donghyuck’s brain. It doesn’t though, because he just raises both eyebrows, as if asking _so what_? “I can’t—use it!” he exclaims incredulously, but Donghyuck just scoffs. He’s been doing a lot of that lately. 

“Sure you can,” he says simply, nudging his head towards the toy again. “It’s a new one, Haru hasn’t it yet,” he assures, and Mark wants to hit himself for the split tenth of a second where he contemplates actually using it just to appease Donghyuck. “If you just do it.”

Donghyuck is staring at him, and Mark honestly doesn’t think Donghyuck is going to let him go unless he does this. So he sighs, relishes in the fact that Donghyuck won’t even remember this the next morning, and tentatively puts the chew toy between his teeth. 

At first, it hurts like a bitch, and does nothing to soothe the ache in his mouth. Mark isn’t sure how this is even supposed to work, considering he had full on canines about to grow into his mouth and not little baby teeth like human babies or Haru, but after putting on a show for Donghyuck and gnawing on the toy, Mark is ashamed to admit that he finds a position which actually _does_ lessen the pain a bit. 

And honestly, he’s really horrified by his discovery. 

“See?” Donghyuck slurs smugly, and Mark remembers that he’s there. He’s rips the toy out of his mouth, but it doesn’t mask the mortification he feels. “I knew it’d work. You’re just like a little kitten.”

He wouldn’t consider himself _little_ in any sense, so Mark glares at him, but it has no effect since Donghyuck closes his eyes. 

Mark expects Donghyuck to open his eyes again, and he waits thirty seconds, which turns into waiting for one minutes, which turns into two, then three, and _oh, Donghyuck’s fallen asleep._

Mark thinks the effects of alcohol on a human are funny and he briefly wonders what it’d be like if he was ever drunk. Maybe he’s pass out like Donghyuck, or maybe he’d get rid of all his inhibitions. 

The only thing that can replicate the drunk of mind state created by alcohol for vampires is some weird nectar Kun buys all the time. Mark hasn’t ever had it personally, but he’s seen what it does to the others. 

Anyways, he doesn’t want to think about that now, so instead, he cleans up the chicken boxes and beer cans around them. Mark thinks it’s what he should do, after Donghyuck had bought him dinner and didn’t kick him out despite him not needing to be here anymore. 

When he’s back from the kitchen after throwing those things away, Haru has settled herself on Donghyuck’s stomach soundly, with her eyes closed much like Donghyuck. 

Mark throws a blanket over them both, because humans actually _don’t_ like the cold, and then settles back into the guest room. 

He would’ve woken Donghyuck up and asked him to go to his room, but he has a feeling that Donghyuck wouldn’t be feeling tired for a long while after that.

And anyways, Mark _has_ been feeling tired, contrarily, so he decides it’s okay to be selfish right now. 

Just for tonight, Mark will let himself melt into the clouds one more time. 


End file.
